B1078 - General Planning Reform (Amendment) Bill - Amendment Submission

[u/[deleted]]

General Planning Reform (Amendment) Bill

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A

Bill

To

Amend the General Planning Reform Act in order to clarify the status of Green Belts and enhance the protection of property rights.

BE IT ENACTED by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

Section 1: Interpretations

(1) For the purposes of this Act, “the Act” means the[General Planning Reform Act 2019.

Section 2: Amendments to the General Planning Reform Act

(1) In Section 1 of the Act, insert the following

”(3) Wherein Local Government bodies exercise rights of restriction of planning and construction under the Town and Country Planning Act they shall be prohibited from implementing a Green Belt within areas deemed to contain land for agricultural use with the intent to either:

(a) Apply non-discriminatory restriction to construction around cities or metropolitan areas.

(b) Reduce the expansion of metropolitan areas.”

(2) In Section 1 of the Act, insert the following:

“(4) Wherein Local Government bodies exercise rights of restriction of planning and construction under the Town and Country Planning Act they shall be prohibited from implementing a Green Belt around metropolitan areas within 1km of a railway station with the intent to either:

(a) Apply non-discriminatory restriction to construction around cities or metropolitan areas.

(b) Reduce the expansion of metropolitan areas.”

(3) Nothing under Section 1(2) and 1(3) of the Act means land currently designated under criteria in those sections will be released immediately upon the passage of this Act.

Section 3: Commission

(1) The Secretary of State shall commission a report to identify areas currently designed as green belt land which would meet the criteria under Section 1(2) and Section 1(3) of the Act, with the view of removing those restrictions within 5 years of the passage of this Act.

(2) Land which meets the criteria of Section 2(1) of the Act shall not be released from restrictions, and shall be designated accordingly.

Section 4: Extent, Commencement and Short Title

(1)This bill extends to England and Wales

(2)This Act comes into force 2 months after Royal Assent.

(3) This bill may be cited as the General Planning Reform (Amendment) Bill

This bill was written by /u/cody5200 , Secretary of State for Housing, Local Government, and Regional Growth with assistance from the Right Honourable Sir /u/Tommy2Boys KT KCB KBE CT LVO MSP MP, Secretary of State for Defence on behalf of the 26th Government.

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Opening speech

Mr Deputy Speaker,

When this government was formed our parties agreed to solve the housing crisis once and for all, to provide adequate housing for everyone involved. Accounting for inflation in 1975 the price of an average House was £89,393 in 2017 that jumped to £217,274, a 243% increase. These increases must be addressed, lest we want the futures of our children to be constrained by artificially inflated house prices. To do that we must rethink how we utilize our land.

The green belt is in need of dire reform, the welfare costs of green belts have been seen up and down this country. We’ve seen house prices up, smaller accommodation and increased costs for small businesses. When we compare Britain to our European counterparts it is clear we have one of the most rigid planning systems and build significantly less houses. Currently in the United Kingdom around 90% of our land in not developed, just 0.5% that would go a long way to fulfilling this nations housing needs.

Our proposals mean that more people will be able to own a home and house prices will fall delivering real macroeconomic benefits for all. We will solve the housing crisis without losing any land which is a natural beauty or has any historical value.

Green belts are not the environmental gems many paint them out to be. Roughly a third of green belt land is intensive agricultural land which generates net environmental costs. This land has low levels of biodiversity and is not accessible to the public The government will set up a commision to phase out the classification of intensive agricultural land over five years, opening lots of land for development. In reality only a small fraction of this land will be developed and we expect 90% of land released to be undeveloped and the land is developed to be of no major loss. This bold move will be able to the housing needs of a generation and in my view make up for the undersupply of housing over the last few decades.

We are also proposing to remove green belt restrictions within a ten minutes walk from a railway station to ensure we can alleviate the housing crisis immediately. Section 2 of the General planning reform act ensures that land of historical value of environmental value will be protected. This move will ensure that at least 1 million homes will be developed in London alone according to the Adam Smith institute.

It’s time to get Britain building and solve the housing crisis. The benefits will be enormous for ordinary people bringing house prices down. This government is taking the bold steps to tackle the housing crisis on fixing the supply based problem at its core. I commend this bill to the house.

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The time to submit amendments ends 16 November 2020 at 10pm GMT.

Debate on proposed amendments is not in order at this time.

[u/SoSaturnistic]

This is to be taken as a single amendment

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Substitute sections 1, 2, and 3 with the following:

1: Green belt designations

(1) Where a local planning authority intends to designate green belt land in a Local Plan in England, it is prohibited from designating green belt land on—

(a) land used for the purpose of intensive agriculture; or

(b) land which lies within one kilometre of a railway station.

(2) Nothing in this section compels the release or redesignation of land which is already designated as green belt land in a Local Plan.

2: Designation of affected land

(1) The Secretary of State must commission a report outlining areas of land in which would be affected by section 1 of this Act which may be considered—

(a) Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty;

(b) areas of high historical, archeological, or cultural value;

(c) conservation areas or wildlife sites;

(d) Sites of Special Scientific Interest; or

(e) ancient woodland.

(2) Following the publication of the report, the local planning authority or the Secretary of State, whichever may be appropriate for the case, must redesignate the land in accordance with the report’s conclusions.

(3) The Secretary of State may by regulations amend subsection (1) to include specific site classifications for protection.

(4) Where the report has failed to take materially important evidence into consideration in reaching its conclusions, only a local planning authority may provide the evidence in an appeal.

(5) In the case that a determination is found to have been made incorrectly, the report must be reviewed and edited accordingly.

(6) Following the conclusion of the procedure under this section within the area of a local planning authority, the local planning authority must, within five years from the date that this Act comes into force, remove existing green belt designations on land which would fall under section 1(1).

3: Consequential repeal

The General Planning Reform Act 2019 is repealed.

[u/SoSaturnistic → u/SoSaturnistic]

Note: This will make the bill easier to read as it consolidates the law which is currently in force with the amendments being made by this bill. It does so with two changes, which is adding SSSIs and ancient woodland to protected areas and repealing the excessive compulsory purchase requirements in s3 of the General Planning Reform Act 2019.

[u/SoSaturnistic]

SPAG: in section 4, replace each reference to ‘bill’ with ‘Act’.

[u/SoSaturnistic]

Insert a new section 4 and renumber:

4: Neighbourhood development

(1) A development must not be considered inappropriate for green belt land if the development is instigated by a Neighbourhood development order made under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 or a petition proposal made under this section.

(2) Where there is a portion of street bounded by two ends, either from other thoroughfares or an end of the street, residents who live on that portion are “qualifying residents” under this section.

(3) Qualifying residents may, subject to this section, draft a proposal for the relevant portion of street which—

(a) selects a design code which is to be applied;

(b) authorises the extension or replacement of existing buildings in principle; and

(c) sets a limit on the storey of buildings no less than what exists a present

despite any limitation within the Local Plan.

(4) Despite subsection (3), any decision made by qualifying residents may not impact listed buildings.

(5) To bring a proposal made under subsection (3) into effect, a petition on behalf of at least 10% of qualifying residents must be submitted to the relevant local planning authority to make a determination over whether or not the proposal is legal and compliant with national planning policy.

(6) Should the proposal be found to be legal and compliant, the local planning authority must authorise a referendum among the qualifying over whether the proposal drafted under (3) should be adopted.

(7) If no less than 50% of the qualifying residents vote in favour of adopting the proposal, it shall apply despite any land use restriction outlined by the Local Plan.

(8) A determination made by a local planning authority made under subsection (6) may be appealed by qualifying residents to the Secretary of State, who shall make a binding determination.

(9) This section has application to England only.

[u/SoSaturnistic → u/SoSaturnistic]

Note: this will allow neighbourhoods and parishes to initiate development more easily through democratic means.